232 [Assembly 



expected that our manufacturers and mechanics should enter into 

 competition in those articles which are most calculated to make 

 a gorgeous display ; and at first it was thought that the Ameri- 

 cans might as well have kept their contributions on this side of 

 the Atlantic, yet our Yankee notions have, on inspection, turned 

 out better than we could have expected. 



While the operatives of France and England were perfecting 

 themselves in the manufacture of silks, satins, velvets, and other 

 articles of luxury, in what have the operatives of America been 

 engaged? why have they not been busy preparing for the strug- 

 gle — engaging for the mastery in the competition which was to 

 be held at the Crystal Palace? why have they not there made^a 

 display equal to that of France and England? The answer is 

 easy, plain, and apparent ; they have been more busy in the use- 

 ful and practical than the ornamental ; their works have been on 

 too grand a scale, and too permanent in their character, to be 

 transported across the Atlantic ; no room could be found for them 

 in the Crystal Palace. While the operatives of the Old World 

 have been becoming expert in the articles of fancy and finery, 

 ours have been building the Erie canal — the Croton Aqueduct — 

 cc'nnecting all the States of our glorious Union, with iron bands, 

 enabling our citizens to travel from one end of the nation to the 

 other with almost incredible velocity, and spreading a net work 

 of wires in the air, (the railroad of the mind,) by which inter- 

 communication of thought can be had with all parts of the Union 

 with lightning speed — annihilating space. We have not only per- 

 formed these things in practice, but the inventive genius of our peo- 

 ple has been aqually active. In the art of painting we can name 

 a West; in scuplture, a Powers ; in literature, Irving, Cooper, 

 Bancroft, Prescott ; in science, a Franklin ; in mechanics, Ful- 

 ton, Whitney, Morse. Our Franklin drew lightning from the 

 clouds, and Morse taught it the art of penmanship. 



The first vessel propelled by steam made her trial trip from 

 the wharves of our city, and have we been loiterers by the way 

 in steam navigation ? Let our floating palaces on the Hudson, on 

 the lakes, and on the Mississippi answer. Where in the world 

 can their equal be found ? 



